New Shrew Has Spine of Steel

sciencehabit writes "It's the size of large rat, but it can reportedly withstand the weight of an adult man standing on its back. Meet the hero shrew, a molelike creature that owes its near-mythological status to a remarkable spine, thickened by extensions of bone that interlock like fingers. The structure was thought to be unique among mammals — until now. An international team of researchers in the village of Baleko, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, made a surprising find: a slightly different shrew with a similarly 'heroic' backbone. Today in Biology Letters, they introduce Thor's hero shrew (S. thori), named for mammalogist Thorvald Holmes, but invoking the Norse god of strength. The researchers don't yet know how its strength compares to that of S. somereni. After exploring the shrews' swampy palm forests habitat, the researchers also have a new guess about why the spine evolved: They suggest that the creatures might wedge themselves between the trunk of a palm tree and the base of its leaves, then use the strength and flexion of their muscular spine to force open this crevice, revealing insect larvae—a food source that other animals can't access."

Comments

I'm certain ..

[ackthpt]

The snakes which prey upon it appreciate all of its better qualities.

way to go slashads

[ArcadeX]

spinal compression add on the side bar... if only a tenth of the time / money put into advertising was diverted to FOSS. spent hours in a meeting yesterday for software to monitor aquatic mammals, and they kept going on and on about how you have to have a trained operator. kept showing screen shots of hydrophone input with obvious patterns, but when i asked if they were developing software to take the human factor out i was told the technology doesn't exist which is bs. PS. i mod myself off topic.